Networking events can be a drag – especially when you have to sit in a room with people you don’t know listening to a ‘speaker’ talk about their life experiences, how hard it was in the start and how successful they are now with a villa in Monte Carlo and a private jet.
It’s not that I don’t like listening to people talk about their experiences, and in particular the mistakes that they have made so that we can learn from them as a business, but it seems to be the same old spiel every time.
That was until today when I attended the monthly Wakefield First, First Friday event. Jonathan Straight from Straight Plc was talking and as a business man that I am genuinely intrigued by – not least because his business has evolved from strength to strength but also how he famously makes himself stand out from the crowd – I was eager to see what he had to say.
He started by saying that he has Ten Commandments in business and then followed on to tell his story using them throughout. Not only was his story compelling and not your usual ‘I started a business, had a few hiccups and now I’m a multi-millionaire’ it was also insightful and made me think about Open Communications and how we are different and actually follow many of his commandments without realising it.
To recap Jonathan Straight’s Ten Commandments are:
- Set clear goals
- Communicate effectively
- Tell the truth
- Be persistent – never, never, never give up
- Be memorable
- Dare to be different – think outside of the box
- Know your competition
- Keep reinventing the model
- Lead by example
- Help others
As a PR agency the first thing we did was choose a name and we wanted it to reflect straight talking and honesty – hence Open Communications. Telling the truth comes with the territory in our business, if you don’t you will soon get found out and as for being persistent – well, those of you who know me also know that it may as well be my middle name.
Communicating effectively is what we do, day in and day out and I would like to think that we are memorable, particularly as we are so different and chose not to conform to the stereotypes often associated with the PR industry.
We know our competition, it’s not difficult when you work in PR, and I would like to think that we lead by example and help others when we can.
So, I would like to thank Jonathan, not just for the talk that he gave today but also for saying it like it is and inspiring a room full of business people. He is without doubt one of the best speakers I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I just hope now that I can put the final few commandments into practice.
After a brief chat with him I’m working on it so watch this space.